MUSIC
BEST BUD
Taryn Blake Miller, aka Y[our] Fri[end],
BY
is the Lawrence scene’s new BFF.
A DR I A NNE DE W E E S E
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t’s 9:30 on a recent Thursday night at the Riot Room. The crowd is sparse, but the few people in attendance seem to know one another. A verse of “Roads” by Portishead fades from the overhead speakers as the evening’s fi rst act, Y[our] Fri[end], takes the stage. Most of those in attendance appear to be there for Max Justus, who will later perform an electronic set. But when Y[our] Fri[end] starts playing, people quickly shut up and listen. Y[our] Fri[end] is principally the project of Taryn Blake Miller, a 22-year-old University of Kansas linguistics major. With her camouflage-rim E R MO glasses, minimalist hoop nose ring and calculator watch, Miller scans AT E N I ONL .COM slightly more bohemian PITCH than the majority of the R iot Room crowd — no small feat. She has the words impossible and soul tattooed on either wrist, a nod to the 25-minute Sufjan Stevens song of that name. A replica of Carl Rungius’ moose watercolor painting is on her right inner arm. Miller works with a revolving cast of musicians. In April, Y[our] Fri[end] was a quartet when it won second place and $1,000 at KJHK’s 2013 Farmer’s Ball. Tonight, it’s just Miller: hardcore songstress Miller and drummer Nicholas Stahl. She’s Miller’s fi rst major public performance quiet, bordering on shy, between songs durtook place last September at the Lawrence ing the 30-minute set. But after a few songs, Arts Center. Jordan Geiger, leader of the she tells the audience, “I’ve been working band Hospital Ships, put together the show on a record for my entire life, it seems like, featuring psych-folk act Mount Eerie. He but I think I’m fi nally going to release it.” had seen Miller play at a small house show As far as performing, though, Miller has in Lawrence and thought she would make been around the scene for only about a year. a good opener. (His instincts were correct; She grew up in Winfield, Kansas (home to the Mount Eerie frontman Phil Elverum, forpopular Walnut Valley Festival), and picked merly of the Microphones, was already an up the guitar as an adolescent. She played in idol of Miller’s, she says.) “That was your “a more hardcore band,” influenced by the fi rst show?” Stahl chimes in, a bit floored. sound of groups like As I Lay Dying. “Wow. Congratulations.” “It actually helped me Now she and Geiger are play the guitar because I Y[our] Fri[end] occasional collaborators; her was playing faster things Saturday, July 13, debut album, Jekyll/Hyde, a nd more compl ic ated at the Bottleneck was recorded at Geiger’s riffs,” Miller says, taking Lawrence home. She consida drag from an American ers Geiger a mentor of sorts. “Aesthetically, Spirit on the Riot Room patio with Stahl. there was chemistry between us, and it worked “It’s just necessary to have good coordinareally quickly,” Miller says. tion to play music like that, I’ve noticed. I’m “Taryn has a really genuine talent for not as good as I was then. It’s been a goal of songwriting,” Geiger says. “Her songs are mine to get back to that.” emotionally evocative without being maudShe took up songwriting later in high lin or sentimental, and they are absolutely school and gradually moved toward less without affect or irony. She is unafraid to aggressive music. be honest, which I fi nd to be rare.” “I wanted to do something that I could On Miller’s record — its release will be play in a coffee shop or play in someone’s celebrated later this month at Love Garden home and not disturb anyone,” she says.
lot lately in projects,” he says. “I’ve always wanted to play in a two-piece because I feel like communication between just two musicians onstage is what makes songs so interesting each time.” “Once other people get involved, it can be positive or negative,” Miller adds. “It can really go a lot of ways.” Miller is set to graduate this winter. For now, her plan is to stay in Lawrence, which suggests she wants to continue growing in what she calls “a flourishing scene.” She’s also an aspiring guitar builder and is eager to get busy crafting something. “I’ve seen her work so hard over the past x amount of months,” says Stahl, himself a former member of Hospital Ships who also plays with Lawrence’s doo-wop rock group Dean Monkey & the Dropouts. “I’ve seen her play three shows a week and go to school and work at Love Garden, which is a demanding job. I see so many people talking about how they deserve things. But nobody actually does anything. That’s all it takes — just doing it. … I’m just really happy to see Taryn getting attention when it’s a deserved kind of deal.”
B R O O K E VA N D E V E R
M US I C
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the pitch
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Sounds — the songs veer toward the atmospheric, with vocal effects somewhere in the Bon Iver–Justin Vernon range. The songs sound a bit like the soundtrack to a summer drive through the Upper Midwest or a lazy day at the lake with a book. Miller says her music, though often described as ambient, isn’t meant to sound especially so; she gathers most of her influence from other Lawrence musicians. She has worked part time at Love Garden for a year and says, “I listen to everything — I soak it all in.” Her songs evolve from single lines that she has written, usually inspired by specific moments or conversations. There’s an ethereal quality to the music, too: Miller won’t disclose the lyrics of her soaring, almost jammy track “Tame One,” not just because of its personal nature but also because its lyrics tend to vary from show to show. “I’m told that there is a lot of risk in my live performances,” Miller says. “I’ve had shows where I’ve called a neighbor across the street and said, ‘Hey, do you feel like playing a show tonight?’ I mean, I’ll give him the gist of it, but there’s something really nice about letting the song play itself.” It’s an approach that appeals to Stahl. “It was refreshing for me to be so spontaneous with music, since I’ve been lacking that a
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J A Z Z B E AT BRAM WIJNANDS SWINGTET AT THE BLUE ROOM
During the jazz heyday of the 1930s and ’40s, Kansas City’s Pete Johnson helped popularize a wild brand of swing — boogie-woogie, stride piano, barrelhouse blues. Today, another Kansas Citian — by way of the Netherlands — keeps the style fresh in some of the same neighborhoods where Johnson swung. Bram Wijnands’ rollicking piano opens the night every Sunday at Green Lady Lounge. Thursday at the Blue Room, his seven-piece Swingtet reimagines the sounds that 18th and Vine knew when Count Basie lived here. If you don’t like happy music, stay away. But if you want to know what Kansas City–style jazz is all about, the Bram Wijnands Swingtet will show you. — LARRY KOPITNIK Bram Wijnands Swingtet, 7–11 p.m. Thursday at the Blue Room (1600 East 18th Street, 816-474-2929). Bram Wijnands, 7–10 p.m. Sunday at Green Lady Lounge (1809 Grand, 816-215-2954); no cover charge at either show.